ISO 100 | 50mm | f 8.0 | 1/250 sec

I’ve had this image stuck in my head for several months now.  Ever since the leaves started falling I wanted to see if I could get an image of a waterdroplet splash in a puddle inside a leaf.  I guess getting into this macro stuff is giving me a better appreciation for the small things, and in this image I wanted to see if I could combine the two together (leaves and waterdroplets).

Unfortunately, as I figured would be the case, the sheer smallness of the leaf puddle prohibits it from producing a splash (the puddle just get bigger and bigger until it flows over the top of the leaf and starts spilling on the ground).  So I did the next best thing and photographed the two elements separately and then combined them together in post.

The leaf was lit from behind with one Canon 430 EX speedlight, and the water droplet was lit with the same strobe light bounced off of a white card behind the water.  Backlight seems to emphasize outline more, and I’m discovering that it actually produces a very nice effect (not to mention the cool shadows it leaves in the picture – no pun intended).

So there’s another week in the books.  More images to come (maybe even some more macro shots)…